Single and multi-axis force transducers are well known in the art and find numerous applications in situations where load and stress analyses are required. One area of interest to automotive engineers and related technologists involves drivelines for automotive vehicles such as passenger cars and trucks.
Prior art attempts to measure various driveline forces include the placing of strain gages directly on the drive shaft. This method, however, has a very low sensitivity capability and is highly inaccurate for measuring thrust forces exerted on the driveline. An alternative method involves breaking the driveline and rejoining the broken parts with a special transducer which then forms part of the line. This procedure, however, has the inherent disadvantage of producing data uncharacteristic of the typical driveline desired to be tested since it alters the physical nature of the driveline apparatus. This method is also undesirable because of its complexity and the extraneous factors which it introduces into the readings being taken.
Therefore, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a force transducer capable of accurately measuring the thrust and torque forces in a driveline without experiencing the difficulties and disadvantages of the prior art techniques.